Chilean President Gabriel Boric defended, on the eve of his visit to Argentina, that fiscal responsibility policies be dissociated from the right-wing political spectrum.
Three weeks after assuming the presidency, Boric gave an interview to the Argentine newspaper Clarín, published this Sunday (3), in which he was questioned about statements made previously to the British network BBC. On the occasion, the Chilean said that “there can be no irresponsible shortcuts in the economy” and defended a policy of fiscal balance – a view, in general, more associated with the right.
Clarín’s reporters say in the interview that a view opposite to that has caused a disaster in the Argentine economy and ask how Boric intends to deal with the influence of his Communist Party allies in this regard.
“On the left, we have to stop thinking that fiscal responsibility is a right-wing issue,” the president replied. “It must be a State policy because it is also what guarantees that reform processes can be carried out.”
To support his position, Boric cited Mario Marcel, appointed to the Finance portfolio. “I didn’t design it to stop reforms, but to make them possible and sustainable over time.”
The choice of Marcel, according to analysts, was a measure to calm insecure foreign investors with promises to increase the social blanket and state participation in the Chilean economy.
In the interview, Boric attributed his country’s economic crisis to the pandemic and the war in Ukraine. When asked about inflation rates, the president reaffirmed his position of fiscal responsibility, explaining that this does not mean adhering to the logic of austerity and cutting social rights.
“Having a relationship between what we produce and a debt that is sustainable is not a right-wing policy, it is a state policy,” he argued. “And I, as a person on the left, claim it and I will defend it.”
In another part of the interview, journalists noted that the Chilean president distinguished himself from other figures on his political spectrum by condemning the dictatorships of Cuba, Venezuela and Nicaragua; Boric responded by seeking to dissociate himself once again from assumptions associated with his position.
“Human rights must be respected and they must be affirmed and promoted regardless of the color of the government that violates them,” he said, citing, in addition to the regimes mentioned by reporters, Brazil, Russia, Ukraine, Yemen and Israel. “I believe that we must abandon the partisan policy of only condemning those with whom we have ideological adversity.”
Boric arrived in Argentina this Monday (4th) for the two-day visit that is his first international trip as president of Chile.
In a press conference with Alberto Fernández, his counterpart in Buenos Aires, he was asked about issues involving the two countries —such as the conflict in the southern region of Chile, known as Araucanía by the Mapuche indigenous people, who claim sovereignty over the territory—, but also again about its position in relation to authoritarian regimes in Latin America.
“There is a certain obsession among the media in quoting just these three countries [Cuba, Venezuela e Nicarágua] as condemnable dictatorships. And it is true that they are and I condemn them. But I believe that human rights should be seen more broadly, and the media play a role in that,” he said.
